MLB report: McCarthy returns to mound

From wire reports

Updated 10:37 pm, Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Photo: Ben Margot, STF

Image 1of/2

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 2

FILE - In this Sept. 28, 2012, file photo, Oakland Athletics pitcher Brandon McCarthy talks to reporters before the Athletics' baseball game against the Seattle Mariners n Oakland, Calif. McCarthy is ready for a normal offseason after being medically cleared this week to resume his regular routine, less than three months after being struck in the head by a line drive and undergoing emergency brain surgery. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)

Brandon McCarthy methodically struck out four Reds in two innings Wednesday in his first game since a horrific head injury. McCarthy, signed to a two-year deal by the D-Backs as a free agent, gave up one run on three hits. He had not taken the mound in a game since Sept. 5, when he was struck in the head by a line drive off the bat of the Angels' Erick Aybar while pitching for Oakland. McCarthy sustained an epidural hemorrhage, brain contusion and skull fracture.

"I felt my rhythm was good, my game pace was good," McCarthy said. "All the things I'd like to have even later in spring I felt were good."

3B Will Middlebrooks left Wednesday's game against Baltimore in the first inning because of a sore right wrist. Middlebrooks, who broke the wrist last August, grimaced after swinging at Chris Tillman's first pitch of the at-bat. He will be evaluated on Thursday.

In his first start since he went down with a strained right oblique eight pitches into last season's NLDS opener against San Francisco, ace Johnny Cueto went two innings against Arizona, allowing four runs (two earned) on five hits with a strikeout and a walk.

LHP Chris Narveson passed his first game test on his recovery from shoulder surgery. Out for nearly a year, Narveson threw 30 pitches against the Royals, allowing two hits and a run, striking out one and walking one. He last pitched on April 15 before needing surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff.

PITTSBURGH PiRATES

RHP Jameson Taillon, drafted second overall by Pittsburgh out of The Woodlands in 2010, will start Thursday against the Red Sox in his final outing before leaving to join Team Canada in the World Baseball Classic.

teXAS RANGERS

Lance Berkman, who has been bothered by a mild right calf strain, is to make his Rangers spring training debut Thursday.